A standing page on who decides what you can install #227

2026-09-25T14:40:33Z

paulhitt commented

2026-09-25 14:40:33 +00:00

(Migrated from gitlab.com)

Android installs from a file we publish or from our own F-Droid repository, and from 2027 Google intends to sit in the middle of that. /metadata and /privacy state the fact in a paragraph each, which is right for a reference page and is not where somebody who just hit an install prompt will look.

/installing and /es/installing cover:

what verification actually requires: a registered identity, package name and signing key, which for full distribution means a Google account, a fee and a government ID
the route left for an unregistered publisher, and the 24-hour wait inside it, with the honest note that it is once per phone and still sits across the way a messenger actually spreads
that a phone without Google's services is outside the whole mechanism
the part that is easy to get wrong in our own favour: the signing key is registered, not surrendered, so the model that makes our own F-Droid repository work survives intact
the iPhone for comparison, which has required all of this along and offers no sideloading at all
what has not been decided, which is whether to register, and why the fee is not the part that costs anything

A standing page rather than a post, deliberately. Whoever meets this in 2027 needs an explanation that is still where the install page points, not a dated write-up nobody links to by then.

Wiring

Linked from /get in both languages, immediately after the three prompts Android already shows. Added to llms-full.txt so an answer engine asked whether this installs on Android ingests the page instead of guessing. No outbound links: sources are named as references, the same convention /comparison uses.

Tests

PlatformDisclosureTests now renders /installing and /es/installing alongside the four pages it already covered.

One change worth reading: the assertions now match a whitespace-collapsed body. Matching raw HTML failed on 24 hours, because the template wraps at eighty columns and the phrase fell across a newline and an indent. That is a test failing for the width of a source file rather than for anything a reader sees.

Falsified by changing the page to claim Google takes the signing key, which fails naming the page and the missing sentence.

754 tests in 78 suites, no failures.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Android installs from a file we publish or from our own F-Droid repository, and from 2027 Google intends to sit in the middle of that. `/metadata` and `/privacy` state the fact in a paragraph each, which is right for a reference page and is not where somebody who just hit an install prompt will look. `/installing` and `/es/installing` cover: - what verification actually requires: a registered identity, package name and signing key, which for full distribution means a Google account, a fee and a government ID - the route left for an unregistered publisher, and the **24-hour wait** inside it, with the honest note that it is once per phone and still sits across the way a messenger actually spreads - that a phone without Google's services is outside the whole mechanism - the part that is easy to get wrong in our own favour: **the signing key is registered, not surrendered**, so the model that makes our own F-Droid repository work survives intact - the iPhone for comparison, which has required all of this along and offers no sideloading at all - what has not been decided, which is whether to register, and why the fee is not the part that costs anything **A standing page rather than a post, deliberately.** Whoever meets this in 2027 needs an explanation that is still where the install page points, not a dated write-up nobody links to by then. ### Wiring Linked from `/get` in both languages, immediately after the three prompts Android already shows. Added to `llms-full.txt` so an answer engine asked whether this installs on Android ingests the page instead of guessing. No outbound links: sources are named as references, the same convention `/comparison` uses. ### Tests `PlatformDisclosureTests` now renders `/installing` and `/es/installing` alongside the four pages it already covered. One change worth reading: the assertions now match a **whitespace-collapsed** body. Matching raw HTML failed on `24 hours`, because the template wraps at eighty columns and the phrase fell across a newline and an indent. That is a test failing for the width of a source file rather than for anything a reader sees. Falsified by changing the page to claim Google takes the signing key, which fails naming the page and the missing sentence. --- **754 tests in 78 suites, no failures.** 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

paulhitt commented

2026-09-25 16:11:51 +00:00

(Migrated from gitlab.com)

mentioned in commit 2724dbb8e2

mentioned in commit 2724dbb8e26d48cb1f5cc0c45d55057573eac0a8

paulhitt (Migrated from gitlab.com) merged commit 2724dbb8e2 into main

2026-09-25 16:11:51 +00:00

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Reference: extant2000/flamenet-relay#227